


Night Breeze

by kuro



Category: Marvel 616
Genre: Angst, Horror, M/M, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-09-03
Packaged: 2018-02-08 05:12:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1927902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro/pseuds/kuro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Such a grim face,” Tony said off-handedly, sitting down next to Steve on the bench and stretching his legs with a pleased sigh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [Night breeze](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3562640) by [luzinha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luzinha/pseuds/luzinha)



“Such a grim face,” Tony said off-handedly, sitting down next to Steve on the bench and stretching his legs with a pleased sigh. For a short moment, they both looked up at the night sky quietly, watching clouds lazily drift by the bright moon hanging high up above them. It was cold out here on the balcony of the mansion, but the cold soothed Steve’s nerves.

“Does that surprise you?” Steve finally asked, breaking the moment of silence.

Tony’s only answer was to turn his face towards Steve and smile at him.

“I was so angry, you know,” Steve continued, feeling his hands in his lap ball into fists. “You betrayed me.”

“No, Steve,” Tony said, still smiling serenely. “I protected you.”

Steve laughed bitterly.

“Oh, you really didn’t,” he spat.

“I did, Steve,” Tony objected, reaching out for Steve and gently patting his cheek. “I really did.”

What Steve really wanted to do was to take that hand into his own and squeeze it until the bones cracked. Instead, he closed his eyes and did nothing.

“Steve?” came a voice from behind him. A little reluctantly, he opened his eyes and turned around. Carol was standing there in the open balcony door, her long blonde hair highlighted by the light streaming out from the brightly lit room at her back.

“It’s time, Steve,” Carol reminded him.

With a sigh, Steve stood up.

“I’m coming,” he told Carol. She nodded at him and returned inside, where the rest of them were already waiting.

“What are you going to say?” Tony asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Mostly good things,” Steve grunted.

“Hm, I think I’m disappointed,” Tony mused, “considering you’re speaking about _me._ ”

Steve only rolled his eyes and went inside. Carol and Jessica were standing close to the windows, so he nodded at them when he passed them by.

“ _Who was he talking to?_ ” Jessica whispered to Carol once he had turned his back to them.

“ _I have no idea_ ,” Carol answered her, just as quietly. “ _But he’s been really strange since Tony died._ ”

Steve turned his head towards the windows, looking back outside. Tony was standing there, waving at him nonchalantly, his dark hair getting tousled in the night breeze, eyes glittering like pools of starlight.

Steve smiled.

Then he turned around, sobering. He had an eulogy to give.

Just for a little while, he had to _pretend_.

Glittering eyes followed him.


	2. Chapter 2

The window was open and the curtains billowed in the cool night breeze like a sail. Steve was lying under the covers of his bed, completely still and pretending to be asleep. Something had entered his bedroom. He was convinced that when he had gone to bed, his window had been firmly closed. He generally never slept with the window open, that was basically an invitation for something to happen in his line of work.

So he had his ears strained, listening to the sounds around the house. More than any sound, however, the absolute absence of strange noises bothered him most. It was too quiet.

"That took you long enough," someone whispered into his ear.

Steve startled. Almost on instinct, he tossed the covers aside, jumped up and raised a fist, ready to strike. Then he saw who it was, and he slumped back onto the bed.

"Why are you here?" Steve asked sternly, feeling his eyebrows knit.

"It's boring when I'm not around you," Tony answered, standing over the bed as innocently as he could manage and batting his eyes at him. "I had to come back."

"Since when are _you_ ever bored?" Steve snorted, rolling his eyes.

"That was a long time ago," Tony waved the question away. "Now... now there's only you."

As if to tell Steve something, Tony kept staring at him with eerily glinting, intense blue eyes.

"Carol wants me to see a psychologist, you know," Steve simply stated instead, crossing his arms. Tony hissed at the implication.

"You are mine," Tony growled, crawling on the bed and gripping Steve's arms. " _Mine_."

"You see, that is the problem," Steve explained. "That is nothing that Tony would ever say."

Tony started to laugh, in a way that sounded cold and thoroughly unamused.

"Yes, I would have never said that when I was alive," he finally deigned to answer. "But, you see, I was alive then. Now I'm dead. Things are changing. It feels as if I'm slowly stripped away. And soon there will be nothing left. The only thing that still remains is you. YOU. The world is shrinking, and you are all that I have left. Don't make me go Steve, please, don't make me go. I can't bear it."

Steve kept staring at Tony's face, taking in all the minute changes of expression on it. One second, Tony looked happy, the next, he was angry, and then, he was desperate. He had known Tony for so long, but recently, he had discovered a lot of things about him he had never known. Emotions inside Tony that must have been there for a long time, that flared up one last time before they fell into darkness and vanished forever. And Tony slowly changed. He still wasn't convinced that this... apparition wasn't something that his mind had cooked up. It did feel real enough, though. If only to him.

"You have to leave, Tony, you know that," Steve whispered.

"No, Steve, please don't," Tony begged. "Please don't tell me to go."

Something cold fell on Steve's arm. After a second, he realised that it was a tear, only it felt more like a drop of ice. Tony was crying.

"I love you," Tony sobbed. For a moment, Steve just stared. This... he should have expected it. But he hadn't, and maybe that was the whole problem.

Reluctantly, he lifted his hand and awkwardly patted Tony's head. 

_If only I could give you what you wanted_ , he thought to himself, suppressing his impulse to wrap his arms around this wretched, desolate creature.

"Why did you have to die first to tell me that?" Steve quietly wondered.

"How could I have done that when I was still alive?" Tony asked with a wobbly smile. He leaned in and gave Steve a gentle kiss.

It tasted cold and lonely.

  


Steve woke up with the sun shining in his face. He jerked up, looking around the bedroom nervously.

There was no-one there, though, only the curtains were billowing in the morning breeze.


End file.
